Brilliance cannot be found in a soy burger

“Is it all naturally derived?” asks New York Mets catcher Anthony Recker during a taste-test of a new plant-based burger. Apparently the jock has a reputation for avoiding anything with preservatives and is cutting back on his red meat consumption.

But that doesn’t stop him from chowing down on a meat substitute composed of 26 ingredients compared to a 100 percent all-beef patty. Hear that shrieking in the distance? That would be the Food Babe pulling her hair out because the ingredient list contains words she can’t spell.

Beyond Meat, the creators of this GMO-free soy and pea protein are pushing their product for all the right reasons, hoping to knock meat consumption by every man, woman and child in the United States 25 percent by 2020, dubbing their movement the 25/20 Vision.

“We want all of the good and none of the bad. We want to eat delicious meat but we don’t want any of the bad stuff that goes along with it. Is that too much to ask? Well no, actually. Not since we created real meat from plants. Brilliant, right?” says Beyond Meat’s website. “Now it’s time to make a real difference. We want to reduce the world’s consumption of animal meat by 25 percent by 2020. Massive, we know. But it would do wonders for human health, for the environment, for conservation of natural resources and for animals. It’s worth a fight.”

Brilliant?

The person who came up with the idea to put a fried onion ring on an all beef patty was brilliant, not the creators of the latest soy burger with an anti-meat agenda.

Unless you count them using professional ball players’ approval as the gateway into American hearts for marketing. I keep forgetting how we’re a bunch of puppets controlled by celebrity trends and influences.

But like it or not, Beyond Meat and similar companies are some of our industry’s newest competitors in the consumer market and will be even more so in the future. And while I believe the taste of beef literally sells itself when compared to a soy burger, it’s important to heed with caution when dealing with these types of companies, especially when their market it built on the back of stepping on yours.

In the meantime, I’m going to keep on enjoying my non-organic, 100 percent beef with plenty of butter on my GMOs – while wearing a New York Yankees shirt.